SAMBALPUR: Six persons were convicted in a murder case and sentenced to life imprisonment by First Additional Sessions Judge, Sambalpur Ambuj Mohan Das on Monday. Two other accused in the case were acquitted for lack of evidence.
The judge also imposed a fine of `50,000 on the convicts. On default of payment of the fine, they will undergo two more years of rigorous imprisonment.
The convicts are Sanjay Ghosh, Sashikanta Senapati alias Pati, Padmanabha Rout alias Padu, Satyendra Thakur, Prakash Naik and Lankeswar Mahalik. Rohit Pradhan and Amaresh Pradhan were acquitted.
According to the prosecution, Ghosh had befriended Special Class contractor Anup Baboo posing as retired IAF personnel and lured him to buy a piece of prime land. Ghosh collected more than ` one crore from Baboo for the land along with his accomplices and they even visited Baboo’s house. When Baboo found that he had been duped, he demanded his money back from Ghosh.
On October 7, 2010, Ghosh called Baboo to an isolated place near Jyoti Bhawan in Sakhipara of the city where the latter was killed by the former and his accomplices.
The culprits left the body at the site and absconded. The murder created furore in the city as Baboo was also a regular blood donor and social worker.
A team comprising former SP Asheet Panigrahi, Inspectors Sanjeev Satpathy and Akash Sahu and police personnel Binod Sahu was formed to trace the culprits. By tracking Baboo’s mobile phone calls, the team tracked down Ghosh and his accomplices to Dhanpur village in Mayurbhanj district.
But, the court trial could not take off as the accused moved the Supreme Court for bail and the court directed for a hearing of the case within six months. Trial began on March 23, 2015. Additional Public Prosecutor Goura Mohan Dash examined 24 witnesses in the case.